Spice Girls 'auditioning to replace Posh and Mel C'

The Spice Girls are back - or, at least, 60pc back.

A worldwide reunion tour is slated for next year, 21 years after their hit single Wannabe, but Posh and Sporty won't cooperate.

So the rest of the group have decided to find two ladies to replace them.

"It wasn't a surprise that Victoria would decline the tour, but the girls really hit the roof when Mel C ditched too," a source said.

Material

"The girls are going to be making a formal announcement about try-outs for their spots in the next few weeks."

The Spice Girls - Geri Halliwell, Melanie Brown and Emma Bunton - are already working on new material.

The group's one-time producer, Eliot Kennedy, who worked with the band on their Spice World soundtrack in 2007, and who appears to be working with the girls on new songs, tweeted: "Now that was a day for the history books. Like 20 years had never happened. Proper friendship! Hit Song."

Last month, Victoria Beckham revealed that her microphone was often left switched off in the band's heyday.

"They used to turn it off and let the others sing," Beckham said, "but I got the last laugh."

She said she always thought the others' clothes were "crap", and added that Mel C had over-egged it when she sang on Spice World: "I bet it must be really hard for you Victoria, ya know, trying to decide whether to wear the little Gucci dress, the little Gucci dress or the little Gucci dress."

"The first dress I wore in the Spice Girls was actually from Miss Selfridge," said Beckham, whose own clothes business is now worth £34 (€43m).